“I’d say so. I’ll even go as far as to admit I kind of miss hearing you bark out orders from the Iodex wing of the Senate all the way from my office.”

“I’ll be up there Friday. You find me someone to yell at, I’m your man.”

“You always have been, Daniel. How’s the new job?”

“I’m going to refuse to answer that on the grounds that it might incriminate me.”

Another chuckle sounded in his ear as he made it to the parking lot.

“Figured that as well. Landon mentioned that you were coming up here with the new intern. I was wondering if you might indulge me and your old man in an extended lunch. I can call Governess Martain and give you an excuse if need be. I try not to abuse the power, but people rarely turn down the Crown Governor. Although I will admit, it’s been more than a day or two since I was writing excuse notes for you or Will and Garrett.”

A smile spread across Dan’s face, a welcomed change from the scowl he’d worn for most of the afternoon. “Won’t be necessary, sir. I don’t have any classes Friday afternoons. I’ll bring Jeff up there and we can go.”

“I appreciate it, Dan. I need some help with something.”

The hesitance in Governor Haydenshire’s tone had curiosity taking root in Dan’s mind. “Anything I can do now? Everything okay?”

“I rather suspect it’s not, but I’d also rather you not discuss this on school grounds. Let’s save it for Friday. I want to go home and see my wife and babies.”

“Yeah, I’m heading home now to see mine.”

“They make life worth living, son. You know it. I know it. It’s when men forget that vitally important fact, that the world falls apart.”

“Chancellor Wilshire?” Dan didn’t really have to guess.

“I’ll see you Friday.”

“I’ll be there.”

After dinner, Fionna settled into Dan on the sofa. He’d already given Aida her bath and read her to sleep. Vastly more interested in most anything his wife had to say than in doing any work at all, he shut his laptop and wrapped her up in his arms.

“I love you.” She unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt and pressed her hand to his chest. A moment later, her soothing Receiver’s energy began pulsing through his veins. Gritting his teeth, he refused to allow himself to draw from her. Not like this. She could give. He wouldn’t take. She was weaker. Halia robbed her of so much of her energy. He couldn’t make a draw, but God, he needed to. Desperately. There was a way to make the exchange perfect, a way to let her fill him while he gave back everything he took.

“I love you, too, sweetheart. How ‘bout a bath?”

“That would be perfect as long as it isn’t only a bath.”

“I hate feeling so fucking weak,” he admitted though his tone held no ardor. He’d always been a weak bastard when it came to her and he always would be. “I’m supposed to be taking care of you.”

“You take care of me every single day. Right now, I think we need to take care of each other.” The magic words reached through his shield, climbed beneath his skin, and wrapped themselves through his musculature until they’d settled squarely in his chest.

Guiding her upstairs, Dan shut the door to their bathroom and inhaled her mouth with his own. Her rhythms were frantic with need. He broke the kiss only long enough to lift her shirt over her head.

“I’m going to be really glad when you can undress me and I won’t be wearing jeans with a pouch,” she sighed as she worked the fabric over her bump.

“You’re so damned sexy, sweetheart. And I like your pouch.” But for the moment a little of their fervor was broken.

As he turned on the water, Fionna removed a small crate of powders and oils from the closet.

Her grandmother, who made oils, teas, ointments, and remedies of all kinds from the plants they grew on their farm in Kauai prescribed bathes each day, with her oils, to restore Maylea’s energies and her spirit.

Fionna added in heavy doses of kukui oil, a few drops of lavender, and a container of bath salts before they climbed in. After he was seated, she relaxed between his outstretched legs.

“What else did Governor Haydenshire say?”

“Relax for me, baby. We can talk about everything later.”

“I want to know.”

“I was under the impression knowledge was not what you were after tonight.”

“Well, there are other things I want, too, but for right now I want to know what Governor Haydenshire said.”

“Just that he wanted me to have lunch with him Friday after I take Jeff to Iodex.”

“What do you think he wants?”

“I’m not …”

“Don’t.” She huffed. “Don’t tell me you’re not sure because you have a suspicion. I’m naked in your arms and our energy is still combined from the couch. I can feel it.”

“You, my stunningly beautiful wife and mother of my children are supposed to be relaxing in my arms and thinking about all of the ways I’m going to take you when I get you in our bed.”

“I can think about that, too.”

“I’m not getting out of his line of questioning, am I?”

“Not likely.”

“All right, fine, I suspect he’s about to ask me to investigate the affair and anything else going on at Venton. When you were there today, Chancellor Wilshire said something about making my dad happy. Dad’s the Governor over Education. There has to be more to all of this than an affair. I owe Governor Haydenshire my life for … what happened. I owe him whatever he asks of me.”

“Governor Haydenshire would never hold that over your head, Dan.”

“I know he wouldn’t. I’m holding it over my own head.”

“What else is worrying you?”

Conceding without arguing this time, Dan kissed the top of her head. “Between the shit going on at Venton, and Jeff Strenton, and everything else, I feel like the students need me. I’m worried they’re going to take up tremendously more time than just being there to teach them. I should have realized that, but I don’t want to take away any time from us or from the girls.”

Suddenly, Dan felt her calming rhythms restore him once again as she pushed her energy through his skin.

“We’ll figure it all out. I promise. We’ll find a balance that works for us, and I want to help your students, too. They do need us.”

“You’ll tell me if you need me to be here more. You’re always the most important thing, you and my baby girls.”

“I know.” Turning on her side she brushed a wet kiss on his chest as she tucked her head under his chin. The water sloshed making her whimper. “I’m like a beached whale.”

“Hush,” he demanded. “You are beautiful, Maylea.” His voice took on a low reverent thrum. “Even my eighteen-year-old students want to bang you.”

She promptly shuddered. “That is seriously disturbing.”

“Well,” he ran his hand over her belly back and forth, until he locked on to Halia’s energy. “Honestly, I don’t think you’ve ever been more beautiful than you are right now. When I look at you swollen full of my baby, at what we made together, it drives me wild.”

She traced her index finger over his cock making him weak from desire. “That’s it, honey. Grab me.”

A breathy moan escaped her as she wrapped her hand around his strain. “You make me so damn hard. You make me ache to fill you full of me. I’m gonna make you take it all.”

“Now,” she ordered.

“Gladly,” Dan was panting as he helped her out of the tub. He sealed heat into the fibers of a large towel and dried her thoroughly as he kissed his way down her belly.

His cock slapped against his abs as she led him to their bed, strung so tight his blood sizzled in his veins.

She was his, and he still couldn’t understand how something so miraculous could be true. He needed to bury his day, this week, everything that had gone so wrong, everything that was coming for them deep inside of her. He needed to feel her energy course through him as he pushed his own inside of her.

He wanted to fill her full of his love and protection. “Lay down for me, baby doll.” His voice was the consistency of gravel. “I want a taste. I want you to fill my mouth with that sweet cream.”

Dan had rather enjoyed all of the new ways he’d come up with to satisfy his beautiful wife as she expanded. He couldn’t quite access her the way he had before they’d conceived his precious little Halia.

“Forgot to tell you earlier,” she cooed. Her eyes were dark and hungry. Her tongue darted out licking her lips. He burned for her. “Got waxed today.”

Dan gave her the growl she was after. “Show me,” he commanded.

Moving to the bed he watched her crawl in. “You are so fucking beautiful.” He knew she needed to hear it often and he longed to fulfill her every need. “Lay back for me.”

She reclined as he dropped to his knees beside their bed in reverence. A low shuddering moan thundered from his chest as he took in her swollen lips pouty with need and waxed bare for him. He traced his fingers along her slit as she writhed.

Spreading her legs, Dan slowly dragged his tongue up and down her slit, listening to her begin to beg for relief. He bathed her pussy with his tongue, devouring everything her body made for him. The liquid form of her energy was exquisite.

“You taste so damn sweet, baby. I need more.”

Her body bucked against him. Circling her clit, he waited until she writhed constantly before he drew her delicate little pearl into the heat of his mouth, sucking and torturing her. She came instantly. He knew she would.

He drank everything she gave up for him, let it fill his mouth as he dipped his tongue between her folds. She clawed the sheets below her desperate for something to cling to.

“All mine.” Abandoning her swollen folds, he sucked hard and marked her mound.

“More,” she begged. The request drove him wild as he marked her inner thighs with his bites. Slipping two fingers deep inside of her he worked his mouth over her once again consuming the nectar of her release.

Her breath washed from her, and her energy spiked hard. “It’s right there isn’t it, sweetheart? I can feel it coming. That’s it baby. I want another one.”

With deep fervent strokes back and forth over just the right spot, she came undone again. He loved that he knew all of her secret desires all of the places to bite and lick and touch to drive her to the brink of ecstasy.

Things had changed as she’d expanded. Those spots had moved slightly, and Dan had loved learning her all over again.

He reveled in the energy he’d pulled from her. It flooded through him healing him, mending his weary soul, making him whole because he was wrapped up in her his own personal saving grace.

“Take me Please,” she whimpered.

“I know what you want, baby. And I’ve got everything you need. He watched the desperate storm swirl rapidly in her eyes.

Unable to lie on top of her anymore, Dan lifted her hips as he stood.

“So wet for me, baby. So ready for me.” he growled.

“Now!”

“Take it all.” He pulled her over his strain burying himself inside of her.

A shuddering growl echoed from his lungs. The exquisite sensation of making them one overwhelmed him. He began to pump her full as she writhed and moaned, urging him on. Their energy began to pass between them. This time he allowed himself to take because he gave more than he was receiving. She came alive as he filled her. Meeting his every thrust, she let his rhythms fill her and restore her.

“I’m gonna,” she gasped, but her breath choked as she jerked back and forth from the force of the oncoming climax.

“That’s it. Come for me.” He shuddered as he continued to piston his hips. The luscious sight of her coming undone for him would be more than he could sustain. “So fucking gorgeous,” he moaned as he throbbed tightly inside of her. The arcs of her energy rose higher and higher. She was almost there.

His release gathered fiercely in his groan, He leaned to massage her swollen breasts. She groaned from the sensation as he began to knead the fevered mounds and twist her nipples as they pulsed, begging for his attention.

She liked them to be sucked as he pounded into her but that would have to wait until after she’d delivered their precious baby girl.

Her body clenched tightly. She swelled. Her energy began to unfurl around them. She cried out his name, and he buried himself inside of her with another savage thrust as he spilled his energy deeply within her.

Their releases mixed as his orgasm drove hers. When his cock was sated, and she was limp from exhaustion, Dan fell to the bed beside her, gasping for breath. He pulled her to him letting her bump lie against him as she laid tenderly on his chest.

He could feel it immediately. He had her energy inside of him now, and he felt the contentment and satisfaction he’d filled her with. Contentment pervaded him. Every single trouble the world held for them existed outside their bedroom door and that is where he would keep it.

Sitting up, Dan pulled the kukui and coconut oils off of the bedside table. He’d rubbed her belly, breasts, thighs and lips down with them every night since she’d first found out she was expecting. It was her grandmother’s prescription to keep from getting stretch marks and so far it had worked.

“Lay back for me.”

She gave him his smile in the light of the lamp he’d left on. He loved watching her as she lost it all for him. Nothing was more beautiful than that. Lathering his hands, he began to massage the mixture all over her. It was a ritual he thoroughly enjoyed.

Massaging her belly, he smiled as Halia responded. “Hey, baby girl,” he spoke near Fionna’s naval. She kicked, delighting her parents.

“I told you she misses you,” Fionna whispered.

Dan sent the soothing pulses of his energy through her stomach and into her womb.

Halia responded immediately. “There’s my, baby girl.” She recognized his energy. Relief and elation fought for dominance in his shield. His little girl already felt how much he loved her.

Sending low level rhythms of his shield from his hands through Fionna’s womb, was a practice Adeline, their Medio, had instructed Dan to do from the beginning of Fionna’s pregnancy.

“Are Adeline and Logan still coming over Friday night?” Dan asked as he worked. Logan and Adeline Haydenshire were close friends of theirs. Dan had handpicked Logan from the Academy for Elite Iodex. His father was the Crown Governor.

“Aida’s going home with Olivia, and I’m leaving right after my lunch with Governor Haydenshire. I’ll be home for the ultrasound.” Recalling his run in at the school, he rolled his eyes. “Although we probably needed to let the school know this two months ago, and to have provided our resumes, the addresses of all of our past homes, and have body scans done for that to be allowed.”

“I already sent in a note,” she laughed. Pulling the light from the lamp into his hand, Dan cosseted her to him tenderly.

“I love you, Maylea,” he whispered in the darkness, feeling his vow soothe her soul.

“I love you, too.”

“I’m right here, sweetheart, and there is nowhere else I’ll ever be. You know that, right?”

“I know that, Dan. It’s not me that’s worried about you not being here for something. It’s you.”

“Yeah, I know.”

The next morning Dan dropped Aida off at school mostly to annoy the Big Bear Bus Patrol Customer Service Representatives from Hell, as he’d taken to calling them. He arrived at Venton a few minutes early.

As he neared his office door, he spotted a middle aged woman dressed in a waitressing uniform and a well-worn cardigan awaiting him.

Smiling politely, Dan tried to figure out whom she might be and why she was at his office.

She was rubbing her hands together nervously. Her face was drawn in deep concern.

“Can I help you, ma’am?” Dan offered.

“Mr. Vindico?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dan unlocked his office door.

“I’m Grace Harrickson.” She stepped into the office with an appreciative nod. “I’m Jeff Strenton’s mother.”

Realization washed over Dan and he gestured her to a chair in front of his desk. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I don’t mean to take up your time.”

“It’s fine. Jeff’s a good kid.”

Relief played in her weary eyes as she nodded. “He really is. It’s just … last night when they told Becca’s parents.” Tears sprang to her eyes and Dan was on his feet.